ONE Technique to Change Your Life

Question: What do the following have in common:

• Lovers finding their soul-mate and getting married
• Detectives solving crimes
• Emergency aid getting to the right people as efficiently as possible
• City regeneration
• Books planned, written, and published
• Complex wealth portfolios managed
• Exams being aced
• Research and development accelerated
• Processes improved
• Teams pulling together as one
• Employees involved, engaged, and motivated
• The right people recruited
• Strategies and campaigns (Marketing and Military) planned and implemented
• Career choices discovered and developed
• Key techniques taught and mastered in record time
• Brain injury being healed and quality of life improved
• And projects being managed, presentations planned and delivered, life-changing decisions being made with confidence, time saved then made the most of, family holidays agreed on where everyone gets what they want, conflicts resolved, confusion banished and clarity gained?

Answer: all these have been achieved through Mind Mapping

Wow! One technique - with a myriad applications. Learn it once, apply it a thousandfold.

Why Learn to Use Mind Mapping?

So you can do all or any of the above in less time while having more fun doing it. Yup, you're wasting time if you're not using Mind Mapping on a daily basis!

What is Mind Mapping?

Mind Mapping, invented by Tony Buzan, is a way of rapidly gathering information and clarifying thinking with a view to a specific result.  It captures data quickly, is visually-rich, and, because it mirrors the way the brain thinks, works naturally, creativity, memorably, and engagingly.  Many people, when they first see a good Mind Map, call it a Spider Diagram!

How to Mind Map

The best way to learn to mind map is to learn from someone who can articulate how they’ve used the technique to manage their thinking over many years.  That’s why I’m hosting a two-hour taster workshop in Poole on the morning of January 22nd.  It’ll be hands-on, creating your own “Map to the Future”.  This is an application of Mind Mapping where you don’t just think about planning the future… you create it!

To make the most of that session, and to share value with those of you who can’t make it, here are some of the key aspects of Mind Mapping that are good to master and apply.

1 Life’s Journey is through a Landscape (not a Portrait)

Your two eyes sit happily side-by-side on your head, not one above the other, leading us to view the world as a landscape, not a portrait.  Posh big televisions mirror this strong visual preference, as do giant billboards, and those ‘Aha!’ moments in life when we come over a hill and suddenly see a breath-taking view.  It’s all landscape.

Even the way I write in English, is landscape – longer on the horizontal than it is on the vertical.

The first principle of great thought-capture is to capture it on a landscape canvas – to mirror the way our eyes see the world.  This is useful for Mind Mapping but also any communication that wants to engage the eyes.

Think about this for learning, messaging, and marketing: we can take in more information with one glance ifit is presented in landscape format.

Step 1 is to use a blank canvas with a landscape orientation.

2 You Get More of What You Focus On

One of the greatest lessons we discover in life is that we get more of what we focus on.  Mind Mapping is a focusing technique, beginning from the natural centre of attention: the centre of the page.

Step 2 is to place in the middle of the page the central focus for our thinking… ideally as an image, or a combination of an image with a descriptive title.

What we focus on expands – that’s why we get more of it.  The same happens in a Mind Map – the central focus will then expand to a world of thoughts associated with that initial seed.  This is why is it good to think about the outcome first.  For example, if you want to solve a problem, it is good to have the solution as the focus in the centre of the mind map.  If we focus on the problem – our thoughts on the problem will expand!  If we focus on the solution – our pathways to that solution will proliferate.

Quick example that arose from a discussion with my friend, Michael Birchmore.  If the issue is parking in the town or city, and the focus is on the parking, our thinking is likely to generate better ways to create provision for parking.  If we decide that the solution is less cars in town, that’s a very different mind map!

3 Buckaroo: Less Brings More

Mind Mapping is fast. It saves you time when you do it properly.  This means using only key words, which are usually nouns and sometimes active verbs. Our brain doesn’t need the other words in order to think them – it only needs trigger words.

If you’ve ever seen the game Buckaroo, you’ll know it’s a model of a mule onto the back of which the players place baggage.  When the mechanism has too much weight on it, the mule ‘bucks’ and the whole lot is thrown off.  This is a great metaphor for your mind.  Too much information and the whole lot crashes: “Buckaroo!”  One of the keys to the success of a mind map is that less is more. Few words can do the work of many – a bit like the 80/20 principle.  20% of the words can trigger the remaining 80%.

Using nouns enables Mind Mapping to become a clearly hierarchical thought tree.  The main words become the branches with finer detail like ever thinner twigs going out to the periphery.  Focus = trunk; main themes = branches; supporting detail = twigs.

Step 3 is to use key words and images to create a hierarchical structure from the broad topics near the centre out to the detail at the edge.

4 Everything is Connected

So said Leonardo da Vinci! Da Vinci must have had one of the most beautifully connected brains of all time.  His expertise and curiosity spanned so many disciplines.  Thoughts work by neuron ‘talking’ to neuron ‘talking’ to neuron in a web of electrical and chemical signals.  When the connection is lost, the communication is also lost – like being cut off on the phone.

Mind Mapping amplifies the connectivity of thoughts by joining all the branches and twigs to one another.  This helps the eye and the mind ‘follow the thinking’ so that we don’t lose the thread. Having each thought underlined and connected speeds the way the eye-and-brain team up to get information quickly to the Cortex.

Step 4 is to make sure each word or image sits on its own branch or twig, and that this branch or twig is only the tiniest bit longer than the message it hosts.

Keeping the web of thoughts tightly connected on the page is also better use of the space available… enabling a deeper exploration of the topic on one page.

5 Colour My Memory

You may or may not be aware of it, but I doubt if you think in black and white!  Colour is deeply significant and meaningful.  When colour is used on purpose – as a kind of code – it has been shown to boost memory recall by 50%.  That’s a 50% improvement in memory just by using colour!  How easy is that?

What could red symbolise for you?  Green? Blue?  With a four-colour pen and a code, you could revolutionise the way you think!  That’s why I invented the ThinkPen – applying red, blue, green, and black to getting the results you want… faster!  (You do remember those wonderful pens with four colours in one barrel?)

Step 5 is to develop a systematic use of colour as codes for your thinking and a catalyst for memory recall.

6 A Picture Paints a Thousand Words

Images and icons can accelerate our thinking – once we have agreed with ourselves what they represent. The logo for The National Trust doesn’t just mean ‘The National Trust’ to me.  Rather, it represents all the remembered experiences I have in my mind to do with The National Trust.  That ‘picture’ paints a thousand memories.

Research has demonstrated that many of us have 96% recall when using images.  That’s far higher than our recall of words.  This is why using pictures makes more sense.

Step 6 is to develop a library of images, icons, and symbols that act as visual short-cuts to much greater amounts of information and/or rapid recall triggers.

7 It’s a Wrap

David Allen, the time-management guru, is a fan of Mind Mapping.  He talks about the need for a ubiquitous thought-capture tool!  He also talks about the psychological stress we feel when something is left unfinished such as a task left undone.

Whilst a Mind Map can go on growing forever, there comes a time when it’s best to conclude the process. One powerful way to do this, whilst mirroring a process our own nervous system uses, is to put a border around each set of branch and twigs.   Our nerves do this using a process called myelination.  This is where a fatty-sheath develops around well-used nerves to improve their efficiency.  A similar effect can be achieved on a Mind Map, since once a border wraps the branch and twigs in an area of the map, it develops its own shape and distinct identity.  This makes it easier to remember and faster to process.

Step 7 is to draw a border around each area of thought that is completed to your satisfaction.

8 Out of Sight, Out of Mind vs In Sight, In Mind – and the Writing’s on the Wall

The final principle has to do with what we do with our Mind Maps afterwe’ve created and completed them.  The truth of our information-age is that once something is out of sight, it is usually then out of mind.  To get insights, we must keep the key information in sight, in mind.  Stick an infographic up on the wall, and you’ve got far more chance of remembering what you’ve learned from it.

Wall-space is a great gift to the brain.  Putting your Mind Maps up on the wall will help you review them both consciously and unconsciously.  They will stay in sight, in mind.  Supermarkets well know the power of the end of aisles – especially the shelves at eye-level.  Walls are there to be used so create a strategic wall for your organisation, or a learning wall for your students.

If wall-space is off limits, a tickler file can achieve almost as good an outcome.  A tickler system is one that ‘tickles’ the memory – like a physical brought-forward diary – enabling you to review your Mind Maps using a key rhythm.

The best rhythm to move something from short-term to long-term memory is:

·     In the first five minutes after completing the map

·     In one hour

·     In a day

·     In a week

·     In a month

·     In a season (90 days)

Do this, and it really will stay in sight, in mind.

Step 8 is to use wall-space or a tickler system to help you review the concentrating information you’ve stored in each Mind Map.

Map to the Future

If you’ve read this far, you may be thinking to yourself, “Why would I want to come on Lex’s workshop? He’s taught me how to Mind Map in this article!”

Good question.  The answer is that, whilst we will review all of the above using exercises to make the points more real and dynamic for you personally, the real value will be in the Mind Map you walk away with.

Humans have always been map-makers.  We remember how to get from a to b, and we show others how to do the same by sharing maps. We love maps!

For this reason, the focus for the final output from our two-hour session will be your first draft of your very own Map-to-the-Future.  This will be your own organising and development of your thoughts about the future you would like to travel towards.  It will clarify your thinking for the future of your business or your family or your legacy – you choose.

Join us

If you’d like to join us (there are a maximum of 8 places per programme), email [email protected]with the details you’d like on your invoice, and Jacqui will send you a payment link.  

What’s the investment? Two hours of your time at a great location in the company of amazing people.  If you are a member of The Boardroom Network or Elite Business Women Clubs, the fee is ￡45 ex vat.  If you’ve yet to join one of our networks, you can still come, and your fee is ￡60 ex vat.

A business coach, Sam Sharma, said to me, "Never coach anyone without their permission," thus, on the day, I'll ask your permission to coach your technique - much like a Golf Pro would help you improve your game!

One-to-One Coaching

Creating your own Map-to-the-Future is so important that I also offer this collaborative exercise to individuals.  If you’d like to spend time together co-creating your future, send me a personal message.

Ps. If you’ve got a your own Mind Map story – how Mind Mapping has improved your quality of results or even your life – I’d love to hear from you.  I’d also like to share your story!

[Image Credits - all under licence]

How to Mind Map https://flic.kr/p/nXGuQu

Mona Lisa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa

Vitruvian Man https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/11/Vitruvianischer_Mann.jpg

Neurons https://pixabay.com/en/nerve-cell-neuron-brain-neurons-2213009/

Fig Leaf https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fig_leaf.png

Focus on Cherry Tree Blossom https://www.pexels.com/photo/person-holding-round-framed-mirror-near-tree-at-daytime-979927/

Bucking https://www.pexels.com/photo/action-animal-bronco-bucking-33251/

Coloured Bear Grafitti on Wall https://www.pexels.com/photo/selective-photograph-of-a-wall-with-grafitti-1194420/

Words from MoMA New York - photo by Neil McKee https://flic.kr/p/23CLNZa

Neuron diagram https://pixabay.com/en/neuron-nerve-cell-axon-dendrite-296581/

Canvas on wall mockup https://emske.com/painting-on-a-wall-psd-mockup/

Coaching graphic https://pixabay.com/en/skills-can-startup-start-up-3371153/